Paris - Day 1

We are in love with Paris. It is a tree lined city full of colorful flowers, beautiful architecture, perfectly landscaped trees, yummy pastries, outdoor cafes on every corner, and excellent shopping!

We arrived at 12PM on June 12th, checked into our hotel and went on our way. We decided to stay in St Germain Des Pres, which was a great choice. St Germain Des Pres is in the left bank. This area is full of unique boutiques and outdoor cafe's. It is definitely my favorite area. I would definitley suggest this area to anyone who likes good food and great people watching! We are staying at this charming hotel, called Artus Hotel. It only has 26 rooms and is very quaint.

Upon arrival we ate at the famous Les Deux Magots on the corner of St Germain Blvd. This is definitely a great place to sit and watch the world go by. This cafe was originally founded in 1813 as a silk drapery and luxury store. Many changes have been made to it throughout the years. 100 years later, the family realized the potential of this artsy area and turned this into a cafe. Since then it has become the place to see and be seen. In fact, in the early 1900s, every morning, Jean Paul Sartre with Simone de Beauvoir would take his seat at "Les Deux Magots" and write for hours, often without pause, but sometimes stopping to talk to Ernest Hemingway, another regular customer! I wonder if we sat at the same table?

http://www.lesdeuxmagots.fr/history/index.php?id=7

After a few glasses of wine, quiche lorraine, and a goat cheese toasted baguette, we decided to do some walking. We walked from our hotel over the Seine River to the Right Bank. People that live here really enjoy the Seine. We saw artists painting along the river, people sitting and just enjoying the view, and boats riding up and down the river showing people the sights of Paris. We walked along the Seine, which was really nice. Very romantic for our anniversary! While walking along the Seine, we saw the Musee Du Louvre. This is magnificent! We plan on visiting the Louve on Saturday.

We also saw the Jardin De Tuileries. In the early 16th century this area was a clay quarry for tiles. After the death of Catherine de Medicis husband, Henri II in 1559, she had a Palace built at the tuileries, the Palais de Tuileries. The palace featured a large garden in Italian style, reminding her of her native Tuscany.

Between 1660 and 1664 the garden was redesigned in French formal style by André Le Nôtre, the celebrated gardener of King Louis XIV. Le Nôtre built a terrace along the riverbank and opened up a central axis which he extended three years later with the creation of the Champs Elysees. The Jardin des Tuileries was one of the first parks to open to the public and it quickly became a place to see and be seen. Even in the 18th century the park featured amenities such as cafes, kiosks, deck chairs and public toilets. The Palais des Tuileries, situated near the Arc du Carrousel, was razed in 1871, opening up the view from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe.

Most recently renovated in 1990, Le Nôtre's formal design of the Tuileries garden has been kept intact. At the same time the park was separated from car traffic. Many modern sculptures were added and in 1999 the Passerelle de Solférino (now the Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor), a footbridge across the Seine opened, linking the Tuileries with the Musee d'Orsay.

Like the Jardin du Luxembourg, Jardin des Tuileries is one of those parks where you can grab a chair for free and sit wherever you like. It also features several fountains, two large basins, numerous sculptures and two museums, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume and the Musée de l'Orangerie, which displays Claude Monet's large water lily paintings . Those two buildings are the only remains of the original Palais de Tuileries.

The French really enjoy this park. They picnic, play with their dogs, and sip espresso all day long. We loved how relaxed people are here! They are definitely not American!

From the Jardin Des Tuileries we walked over to the Tour Eiffel. It is really magnificent. We decided to be tourist and go to the top floor. The lines were long and it was pretty chilly today, but it was definitely worth the wait. The view was great of the entire city! Believe it or not, the Eiffel was finished being built in 1889 and at the time was the tallest building in the world! It wasn't until 1930 that it lost its title to the Empire State Building. Even funnier - the French hated the Eiffel when it was being built, calling it an eye sore. They wished that he had gone through with building it in Barcelona, which was his original choice. The government of Spain rejected his plans as too expensive and out of the ordinary for architecture in Spain. So once he built the structure in Paris, he was was criticized for being too artistic and having no regard for proper engineering. Angry letters were written to the newspapers complaining about the structure and begging for it to be dismantled at the end of its permit. Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit. The military used it to dispatch Parisian taxis to the front line during the First Battle of the Marne, and it therefore became a victory statue of that battle.

Well, I find this funny now and I guess all those artists were wrong, as it is one of the most recognized structures in the world and has had over 200,00,000 visitors since its opening.

For dinner, we just walke down the street and ate at one of the many brasserie's. The onion soup was great and the wine was even better!

First day in Paris was really fun, we can't wait till tomorrow.